The game offered the opportunity for a contestant to win up to $25,000. On January 3rd of 1983, the contestant who had just bid the closest price on an item won the opportunity to play a new pricing game and that game was Plinko. In 1972, the game show was revamped into its current form and has been running ever since. Over sixty years ago, the world was introduced to the long-running game show, the Price is Right. Now come on down, and take your chances at Plinko, and let your mathematical voice be your guide. We revealed what it was that the voice of mathematics should be saying to each contestant to help win the best prize. The computer model was modified to determine how the different dimensions of the board would impact where the chip would land depending on where it was dropped. As it turns out, Plinko type minigames have been popping up in numerous places, with dimensions different from the original game. While building the computer model, we found ourselves asking more questions about what might happen if the board was modified. From that, we started asking questions about how much the show’s producers realistically thought they might have to pay the contestant.
We created computer models to simulate the game and determine where a chip is likely to land depending on where it was dropped. Where should the contestant drop the chip to win the most money? What does the voice of mathematical reason tell the contestant? Most importantly, will the contestant listen to the quiet voice of mathematical reason, or the overpowering voices of the audience? We set out to determine what it was that the quiet voice of mathematical reason was telling the contestant all along. Each time the contestant went to drop a chip into the board the roaring voices of the audience would attempt to guide the contestant to where to drop the chip to win the most money. On January 3rd, 1983 the world was introduced to the Price is Right’s newest game: Plinko (CBS Interactive, n.d.) A contestant stood on the stage at the Plinko board, ready to drop chips in the pachinko-like board, for a chance to win different cash prizes depending on which chamber the chip fell into. Benjamin Marasco, Howard Community College
0 kommentar(er)
